F152 
.K51 




^^0^ 



^Q> ^0-. 




















*' 







'h9 








.•^ .•••..-*< 








o. ♦ir,«* ..o' 't, '♦^^.* s:?-' 





' .♦in.'* "^^ 












- ^^^^ o\ 


















r. '»bt? ;i 






I* ' jc» r\> o, 



V'O^ 












John Kinsey 



SPEAKER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSEMBLY 



AND 



JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT 
OF THE PROVINCE 



BY 

JOSEPH S. WALTON 



PHILADELPHIA : 

FRIENDS' BOOK ASSOCIATION 

1500 Race Street 

igoo 



Libi*«iry of Conqrega 

Two Copies Received 
JAN 23 1901 

Copyright entry 



No 



SECOND COPY 



X5\ 



Copyright, 1900, 
By Friends' Book Association. 



JOHN KINSEY. 

In that religions revolution of the seven- 
teenth century which emancipated the indi- 
vidual and strove to remove the necessity for 
an intermediary between God and man, the 
early Friends took an active part. They, like 
the followers of Meno, and the disciples of 
Spinoza, believed that the individual was 
more important than any system of education, 
any code of philosophy, or any state govern- 
ment. This spirit of individualism, when sub- 
dued and guided by a strong religious fervor, 
made the individual a good student, a good 
citizen and a good Christian. This doctrine 
was promulgated at a time when the old-school 
leaders in the universities, the churches and 
the governments of Europe looked upon its 
authors as fanatics, heretics and traitors. 

The Society of Friends brought this vigor- 
ous individualism with them into Pennsylva- 
nia and the provincial government. They 



JOE^^ EIN8EY. 

opened their doors to the Indians, the Swedes 
and the Germans — to men of all races and de- 
nominations. This heterogeneity developed 
with remarkable vitality a condition of em- 
phatic, if not inflated, localism in govern- 
mental aft'airs. This element among the peo- 
ple overturned Penn's Frame of Government 
and placed in its stead the Privileges and Con- 
cessions of 1701. It was this element which 
gained for the Pennsylvania Assembly a 
privilege enjoyed by no other provincial leg- 
islature, or even Parliament itself, — the 
right of convening by statute and adjourning 
when the business was completed. All the 
colonial legislatures except Pennsylvania 
were called and adjourned by the Governors. 
This remarkable and startling innovation 
was the cradle which nursed Pennsylvania 
liberty, and enabled its citizens to enjoy an 
unparalleled degree of colonial prosperity. 
This condition enabled a Quaker and German 
Assembly to rule and gTdde the state against 
the protest of the proprietary interests and in 
spite of the ruling of the English Board of 
Trade. 



JOHN KIN8EY. 

The leader of this so-called " Quaker Ex- 
periment in Government " was John Kinsey 
the third, whose grandfather, John Kinsey 
the first, was one of the commissioners sent 
ont by the proprietors of West New Jersey 
in 1677. 

The elder Kinsey was taken ill on the good 
ship " Kent," and his devoted son put him 
ashore at the Swedish settlement at Shacka- 
maxon, where he died in a few days. He was 
buried in the land promised unto him, the 
land for which he had mapped and planned 
a Quaker settlement before he left " old Eng- 
land." His burial place was subsequently 
known as Burlington, New Jersey. 

EARLY EDUCATION. 

His son, John Kinsey the second, became 
an active and acceptable minister among 
Friends. He traveled extensively in the min- 
istry, and in 1716 his legal talents brought 
him into the New Jersey Assembly, where he 
served as its speaker for a number of years. 

His son, John Kinsey the third, has been 
spoken of by his contemporaries as "the 
3 



JOHN KINSE7. 

learned in the law, John Kinsey, Esquire.'' 
He was well bom for the work before him. 
Three generations of legal and ministerial 
vigor found their maximum in him. 

We are told that " he was a lad of quick 
parts, having the advantages of a good school 
education as well as of parental discipline. 
In his youth/' says his memorialist, "he 
chose the better way. At an early age he 
commenced the study of law and became a 
sound jurist." 

The most conservative among Friends at 
that time looked upon him as one most gTa- 
ciously preserved from the leaven of the un- 
godly. He was made clerk of the Philadel- 
phia Yearly Meeting, and was entrusted with 
the most weighty concerns of the Society. 

At the same time he plead both civil and 
criminal cases before the bar, sat in the Penn- 
sylvania Assembly and guided its policy as 
speaker, and during a number of years sat on 
tlie bench of the Supreme Court of the 
Province. 



JOEI^ KINSE7. 

REFUSES TO REMOVE HIS HAT IN COURT. 

In 1725 he came to Philadelphia to plead 
a case before the Pennsylvania Court of 
Chancery. Governor Keith presided at that 
time. John Kinsey commenced speak- 
ina' with his hat on. The Governor 
ordered him to remove it at once. Kin- 
sey declined, saying that he could not 
do it for conscience' sake. The Gov- 
ernor then directed the officers to remove 
the offending hat, and the case proceeded. 
A ripple of suppressed laughter went round 
the court-room, and doubtless more than one 
dismissed the incident from his thoughts with 
some contemptuous remark about that fanati- 
cal Quaker from the Jerseys. 

'Not so, however, with the Friends in and 
around Philadelphia. They gravely dis- 
cussed the matter in their meetings for disci- 
pline. The Quarterly Meeting took it up, de- 
claring that such proceedings were an in- 
fringement upon the religious liberties of the 
community. 

Ten men were sent to Governor Keith with 
a written protest declaring that the charter 



JOHN KINSEY. 

given bj Charles II. to William Penn granted 
to Friends " a free and unquestioned righ' to 
the exercise of their religious principles.'' 
" There is no people, they said, more willing 
than the Friends to pay all due regard to 
their superiors, to offer all honor to the courts 
of justice, and in every way consistent with 
their religious persuasions to pay all deference 
to their government and king; but when our 
conception of an individual's personal liberty 
is trespassed upon, we have openly and firmly 
borne our testimony against it in all coun- 
tries and places where our lots have fallen." 

The petitioners therefore claimed it as a 
legal right that Friends be exempt from such 
arbitrary rulings in the future. This was 
John Kinsey's first encounter with the Gov- 
ernor's party and the proprietary faction in 
Pennsylvania. In the records of the Court 
of Chancery we find the following entiy: 

" On consideration of the humble address 
presented to the Governor this day, read in 
open court, from the Quarterly Meeting of 
the people called Quakers, for the city and 
county of Philadelphia, it is ordered that the 
6 



JOHl^ KINSEY. 

sai^' address be filed with the register, and 
that it be made a standing rule of the Court 
of Chancery for the Province of Pennsylva- 
nia, in all time to come, that any person what- 
soever, professing himself to be one of the 
people called Quakers, may and shall be ad- 
mitted, if they think fit, to speak, or other- 
wise officiate, and apply themselves decently 
nnto the said courts without being obliged to 
observe the usual ceremony of uncovering 
their heads, by having their hats taken off; 
and such privilege hereby ordered and 
granted to the people called Quakers shall at 
no time hereafter be understood or inter- 
preted as any contempt or neglect of the said 
court, but shall be taken only as an act of con- 
scientious liberty, of right appertaining to 
the religious persuasion of the said people, 
and agreeable to their practices in all the civil 
affairs of life." 

This was John Kinsey's first contest in 
Pennsylvania; and, as if prophetical of his 
future career, it was crowned with success. 
He continued to reside in 'New Jersey, where 
he was elected a member of the colonial 



JOEJ^ XINSE7. 

Assembly and appointed its speaker, in whicli 
position he obtained the requisite training for 
the work awaiting him in Pennsylvania. 

MOVES TO PHILADELPHIA. 

In 1730 he moved to Philadelphia, having 
been married five years. His legal mind and 
strong power as a leader soon made him prom- 
inent in political movements. He came into 
Pennsylvania at an exceedingly important 
period in her history. Since the death of 
William Penn a strong factional feeling had 
grown np in the province. The proprietary 
interests were rapidly narrowing to a pecu- 
niary basis. 

Penn's sons had none of their father's 
broad-minded statesmanship and philan- 
thropic generosity. Their policy soon created 
two political parties in Pennsylvania, the pro- 
prietary party and the people's party. When 
John Kinsey came into public life in the 
province, he quickly gathered together the 
growing discontent among the people and be- 
came the leader of their representatives. 

In doing this he had no intention of openly 



JOEl^ KIN8E7. 

defying the Governor and his authority. He 
was pre-eminently a people's man, and the 
very instincts of his nature led him to guard 
jealously the least infraction upon their privi- 
leges. 

His honesty and integrity inspired confi- 
dence among the numerous denominations 
and nationalities collected in Pennsylvania. 
The Friends appointed him an elder in the 
Philadelphia Monthly Meeting in 1738, and 
for many years continued him as clerk of the 
Yearly Meeting. The Germans voluntarily 
supported him as speaker of the House from 
1740 to 1750. For seven years previous to 
his death he was Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court in Philadelphia. 

THE MARYLAND COMMISSION ON THE DISPUTED 
BOUNDAEY. 

The Governor's party recognized his abil- 
ity and realized that in judicial affairs he was 
no partisan. Indeed, when the Governor's 
council w^as in an increasing and embarrassing 
dispute with Maryland over border difficulties 



JOEl^ KINSE7. 

west of the Susquehanna, when Cresap's war 
had left things in a lawless condition, when 
the Governor of Maryland was growing more 
and more insolent and evasive, then it was 
that John Kinsey was appointed to visit Gov- 
ernor Ogle, of Maryland. 

He was instructed to secure (1) a cessation 
of hostilities, (2) an agreement that neither 
province would sell any more land on the bor- 
der until the boundary line was fixed, and (3) 
an arrangement that all taxes in the future 
should be collected by Pennsylvania and 
Maryland respectively on the properties 
which had formerly paid taxes to those prov- 
inces. In addition to these things, Kinsey, 
with his companion, Samuel Preston, was in- 
structed to secure the release of Pennsylvania 
citizens then in the jails of Maryland. 

Governor Ogle received the Pennsylvania 
commissioners with evident cordiality, com- 
plimenting the province upon the character 
and erudition of her delegates. Ogle insisted 
that he was heartily tired of this border war- 
fare, and sincerely favored peace. Since all 
previous missions to Maryland on this subject 
10 



JOE'N KINSEY. 

had been to no purpose, his willingness to set- 
tle was considered very encouraging. 

It was agTeed by both parties that no more 
settlements should be made in the disputed 
district until the boundary line was deter- 
mined. But when it became necessary to de- 
cide what settlers were already in Maryland 
and which were in Pennsylvania, Jennings, of 
the Maryland commission, threw more and 
more obstacles in the way of an amicable 
agreement, and for reasons not understood by 
Kinsey and Preston, Governor Ogle's interest 
in the affair suddenly relaxed, his council was 
adjourned, and he left town without giving 
the Pennsylvania commissioners any notice. 
Thus the negotiations were abruptly ended. 
It would seem that John Kinsey's clear logic 
and perfect self-control promised to effect a 
settlement; but when Jennings and those 
personally interested found that they were 
losing ground, means were taken to dissolve 
the council and draw the Governor away from 
the " seductive influences of the Pennsylvania 
commission." 

John Kinsey and Samuel Preston came 
11 



JOEl^ KINSEY. 

home with little or nothing to show for their 
mission. But what at first sight appeared a 
failure proved in the end to be a victory, 
since the border warfare ceased and future 
negotiations, freed from acrimony, became 
possible. 

JOHN KINSEY SPEAKER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA 
ASSEMBLY. 

Two years later, in 1739, John Kinsey was 
elected speaker of the Pennsylvania Assem- 
bly to succeed the illustrious Andrew Hamil- 
ton. On the evening of October the 15th a 
committee of five members of the Assembly 
waited upon Governor Thomas w^ith the in- 
formation that the legislature had met accord- 
ing to its charter and selected John Kinsey 
for speaker. 

The committee desired to ^x upon an hour 
when they could present Kinsey to the Gov- 
ernor. Eleven o'clock the following morning 
was determined upon. The new speaker was 
then formally introduced to Governor 
Thomas. After making some apologies for 

12 



JOEl^ KINSET. 

Lis lack of experience and ability, Kinsey de- 
clared liis willingness " to undertake that 
charge, if he should meet with the Governor's 
approbation." Governor Thomas very gra- 
ciously replied, " Your character, sir, sets you 
above all exceptions, and I should betray a 
want of judgment if I did not approve of the 
choice the Assembly has made of you for its 
speaker." (Pa. Col. Kec, Vol. IV., p. 353.) 
John Xinsey then made the usual request of 
privileges from the Governor, and the Assem- 
bly was ready to do business. 

Since 1701 the Pennsylvania Assembly had 
been permitted to meet upon its own adjourn- 
ment, to judge of the qualification and elec- 
tion of its members. This privilege, which 
was granted by William Penn, was not then 
enjoyed by any of the other colonies. 
At that time Parliament itself never dreamed 
of convening by statute and sitting upon its 
own adjournments. It was the assumption of 
just such power as this by the Virginia As- 
sembly, in 1621-22, which led the Crown to 
seek the first opportunity to issue a writ of 
quo warranto, and have the old Virginia 
13 



JOHN KINSET. 

charter removed, tliiis changing the govern- 
ment from a proprietary to a royal colony. 

Because Pennsylvania enjoyed this privi- 
lege at so early a date, and because her As- 
sembly controlled the salary of the Governor, 
the province was enabled, under the leader- 
ship of John Kinsey, to completely control 
any executive efforts of which the people did 
not approve. Indeed, the Assembly was not 
slow in using the full extent of its power over 
the Governor. At one time, when a batch of 
bills had been sent to Governor Thomas for 
approval or veto, John Kinsey sent the fol- 
lowing letter: 

" We are sincerely disposed to cultivate a 
good understanding with our Governor, and 
having the interests of our constituents much 
at heart, the declaration he is pleased to make, 
' that he shall be at all times willing to give 
the amplest proof of his regard for the peace 
and prosperity of the people we represent,' is 
very acceptable to us, and encourages us to 
hope that the bills which now lie before him, 
and such others as shall be thought necessary 
for the public good, will not fail of his ready 



joh:s kinsey. 

concurrence; and we, on our part, do assure 
the Governor that we are of the opinion that 
government should be honestly maintained; 
and whenever he shall be pleased to give his 
assent to those bills we shall cheerfully make 
such provision for his support as may demon- 
strate our sincerity and the desires we have of 
becoming ' the healing Assembly.' 

" Signed by order of the House, 

John Kinsey, Speaker." 

(Pa. Col. Rec, Vol. lY., p. 628.) 

JOHN KTNSEy's attitude UPON WAR. 

At the time of John Kinsey's election as 
speaker (1739) Governor Thomas was very 
much exercised over the rumors of a Spanish 
war. He urged the Assembly to take into 
consideration the defenceless condition of the 
province, and to take such measures as be- 
came " loyal subjects to his Majesty and lovers 
of your religion and liberties. . . . The mis- 
eries of a city sack't, or a province ravag'd, 
are more easily imagined than described; and 
if attended to must influence every lover even 
of his own family, to defend that part of it 
15 



JOHlf KTNSEY. 

wliich from sex or age must depend upon Mm 
for protection from the insolence and wicked- 
ness of licentious invaders.'' (Pa. Col. Rec, 
Yol. lY., p. 354.) 

The Assembly does not appear to have been 
in the least disturbed by such rumors. Kin- 
sey tells the Governor that the house is not 
in the least apprehensive of any immediate 
danger; and since this was not the session 
when such matters were usually considered, 
the Assembly proposed to adjourn until De- 
cember 31st, 1739. 

PENNSYLVANIA BILLS OF CREDIT. 

It was about this time that the English 
Board of Trade instructed Governor Thomas 
to call in the bills of credit previously issued 
by Pennsylvania. This state money had been 
sent out by the untiring influence of Benja- 
min Franklin, and the majority of the people 
of the province looked upon it as a great 
boon. 

Governor Thomas called an extra session 
of the legislature, and at once laid the matter 
before it. John Kinsey, on behalf of the 
16 



JOHl^ KINSE7. 

house, replied that all bills had been issued 
on a land security of double their value, and 
at no time since their issue had their credit 
been impaired ; and if the Governor will study 
the affair he will find that " our bills of credit 
are not only absolutely necessary for carrying 
on the trade of this province, but of great ad- 
vantage to Great Britain." Indeed, John 
Kinsey goes a step further, and calls in ques- 
tion the veracity of the report made by the 
Governor to the Lords of Trade and Planta- 
tions, saying " it seems to have been hastily 
drawn " and " is in many parts mistaken and 
difiicult to be understood, and does not in our 
opinion answer the questions proposed, but 
reflects on the credit in which our paper cur- 
rency has always continued among ourselves. 
. . . Therefore, ... we hope the repre- 
sentation to be made of this affair by the Gov- 
ernor, . . . will be agreeable to the sentiv 
ments of the house." (Pa. Col. Eec, Vol. 
IV., p. 366.) 

This is all that Governor Thomas secured 
from the extra session. Yet here was the hid- 
den bone of contention which created two po- 
17 



JOHN KIN SET. 

litical parties in Pennsylvania and deepened 
the quarrel between the Governor and the 
Assembly. 

Other matters were dragged in for a time, 
but the bills of credit w^ere beneath all the 
misrepresentation whicli the Governor's party 
and the English Board of Trade heaped npon 
the Pennsylvania Assembly. When the Gov- 
ernor was in any real need of money for the 
defence of the province, the Assembly was al- 
ways willing to furnish it, provided such 
money could be raised by a new issue of bills 
of credit; and since the Governor's instruc- 
tions forbade him from approving any such 
measures, things were often unfortunately 
embarrassed. 

Whatever delay was occasioned was invari- 
ably assigned to the existence of a Quaker 
Assembly. The people of all denominations 
supported such an Assembly, not so much be- 
cause it was a Quaker Assembly as because 
the men it contained and its leader were 
avowedly in favor of the bills of credit, which, 
on the basis of rising land values, worked well 
so far as Pennsylvania was concerned. 
18 



JOHl^ KIN8ET. 



QUAKERS. 

The people looked upon such an arrange- 
ment as more preferable than any sys- 
tem of taxation. This is clearly illustrated in 
Conrad Weiser's attempt to stir up the Ger- 
mans against the so-called " Quaker Assem- 
bly." Aided by the reports that the Quaker 
Assembly would do nothing toward putting 
the province in a state of defence, it would 
at first thought appear to be an easy matter 
for a man of Conrad Weiser's influence to 
alienate the German vote from the '' Quaker 
Assemblymen." At that time there wag 
probably no man in Pennsylvania who had 
greater influence with the Germans than Con- 
rad Weiser, the great Indian interpreter. He 
was a staunch admirer and faithful servant of 
Governor Thomas. Some years before, when 
Weiser became a '' Seventh Day Baptist " 
through the teaching of Conrad Beissel, and 
joined the community at Ephrata, Governor 
Thomas visited him, complimented the com- 
munity upon their economy and prosperity, 
and finally persuaded Conrad Weiser to ac- 
19 



JOEl^ KIN8EY, 

cept a commission as justice of the peace. 
Later, when differences arose between Beissel 
and Weiser, Governor Thomas was quick to 
draw his trusted interpreter away from 
the Ephrata community. As Weiser became 
more and more a man of the world, he found 
many things to do of a profitable character. 
He naturally became an ardent supporter of 
the Governor's party, and in the campaign of 
1741 did everything he possibly could to in- 
duce the Germans to vote against the Quak- 
ers and elect an Assembly in sympathy with 
the Governor. This was the time he issued 
a circular entitled " Serious Advice to Our 
Countrymen, the Germans, in Pensilvania " : 
" Worthy Countrymen : It is with great 
concern I now speak to you on the occasion 
of the ensuing election of Assemblymen, the 
importance of which is so great that it must 
concern every Inhabitant of this province that 
possesses anything of Temporal goods, if it 
was no more than one's own live [life] , if one 
loved it. The thing itself is that about a year 
since a difference happened about the question 
vdiether it was rendering tribut to Casar 
20 



J0F2V KIN8ET. 

[Osesar] or no. We the Germans in particular 
have hitherto said with no (to judge according 
to onr needs, in chnsing such Assemblymen 
once and again who have been so far from 
complying with onr gracious sovereign about 
a contribution towards his war that the [they] 
have quarreled with the Governours and not 
only not given one farthing to them but to 
the Govemour not even his usual salary that 
has for above twenty years ben alowed to the 
Governour for the time being. Permit me 
to put you in mind that as we for the most 
part retired into this country for peace and 
safety's sake, and to get our living Easier than 
in Germany, we not only have obtained our 
ende in all this but we have also been well re- 
ceived and protected by the Governours of 
this Province, Especially by the present Gov- 
ernour, and it is not long since His Majesty 
of Great Britain by an act of his parliament, 
invested us protestants upon very easy terms, 
with so many priveleges & liberties whatso- 
ever that a native Englishman can enjoy. 
Consider whether all this should not move us 
to an actual thankfulness and to answer the 
21 



JOHl^' KIN8E7. 

above mentioned question with yea. When 
without making reflection upon the favors we 
received the laws of good order requires it, 
and accordingly to chuse such Assemblymen 
which will no longer opose such reasonable 
request as the present time requires, and it is 
to be said that if we as newly come to the 
Country, and have received so many favors, 
do opose the Govemour any longer into which 
under a continuance of liberty it might not 
turn out to our best advantage to draw a par- 
ticular displeasure upon us as many of the 
wisest of the Quakers themselves are afraid 
and shoes [shows] their dislike of the 'As- 
sembly ' for this too years past in their [its] 
opposition to the Governours, which whether 
or no it did not arise from a private Pique I 
let the time itself & the Weiser judge. It is 
at this present time more necessary to Elect 
another Assembly which may use their En- 
deavor to put a stop to the differe behor. . . . 
[between?] the Govemours & the Country 
and to think upon means which may . . . 
[cause] peace and unity to prevail amongst 
[us] we are every day in Expectation of a 

22 



JOHN KIN8ET. 

french ware; the french is'ation is many 
thousand strong in America and possessed of 
Canada a large and well fortified country to 
the Nord [north] of iis, and to the west of 
us they are possessed of the great river 
Meshasigg, which extends in its several parts 
far and wide, one part of it generally going 
where our traders go to deal with our Indians 
is within the bounds of pensilvania, insomuch 
that between that and the west branch of the 
Susquehanna is but a short land carriage, and 
all the Indians near the waters of the afore- 
said great River [Ohio River] are in league 
with the enemy, and it is an easy matter for 
the french with the help of their Indians to 
come this road and lay tliis province wast in 
a few days in ruins, or any other neighbor- 
ing province, and how cruely those barbarians 
that those which they take for their Enemy 
is not to be expressed in words. I wish heart- 
ily we may never have the experience of it. 
But for these considerations if no other we 
ought all to be united as one people, as we 
are told in the Gospel a house divided against 
itself cannot stand, but in order to divide us 

23 



JOHl^ KIN8E7. 

many of you have ben told, it seems, that if 
you took not care to chuse Quakers you would 
be brought into the same slavery you came 
hither to avoid. It grieves me to think that 
any sliould give themselves the liberty to in- 
vent and propagate such falsehoods. The 
Quakers are a sober & industrious people, and 
so far as they have ben concerned in govern- 
ment we have thrived in their protection, but 
we see there are amongst them who shew the 
have the same pashions and give way to them 
as much as other men, and we want such as 
will make up our Breaches and not widen 
them. That you may be directed by wisdom 
in your choice and that peace, love, truth, 
and good will amongst men may prevail is 
the hearty prayer of your friend, 

" CONKAD WeISER. 

" Tulpehocken in Lancaster County, 
20th of September, 1741."* 

TJie Governor and his party were well 
aware that no man could turn the German 

*See "Life of Conrad Weiser and the Indian Policy 
of Pennsylvania," pp. 60, 61. 
24 



JOEl^ EINSET. 

vote easier tlian Conrad Weiser, hence tlie 
above letter, which, was circulated far and 
wide among the Germans. These sturdy and 
self-sufficient people read the letter, and then 
voted for the Quaker Assemblymen. 

KUMOES OF WAR. 

During the Rye years previous to the open- 
ing of King George's war, the Governor of 
Pennsylvania never ceased importuning the 
legislature for money to defend the colony 
against its enemies. During the winter of 
1739-40 John Kinsey, in behalf of the Assem- 
bly, resisted the Governoi-'s demands. There 
had been rumors of pirates on the Atlantic 
coast, and the Governor, having found some- 
thing specific, insisted that funds must be 
forthcoming at once. Ivinsey replied that the 
charter of Pennsylvania gave the proprietor 
or his deputy the power to levy troops and 
defend the colony. This clothes the Gov- 
ernor, he writes, with all the powers of a. cap- 
tain-general. Other governors have exercised 
this power, and it '^ continues unrestrainedly 
by any laws that we know of save those which 

25 



JOHN KINSE7. 

relate to tlie liberty of conscience. The words 
of the charter are very extensive, and will, we 
hope, suffice to all the purposes the Governor 
and those in like manner principled can rea^ 
sonably desire, without any interposition of 
ours. Although we are freely persuaded that 
whatever preparations may be made here, 
they will prove ineffectual without the aid of 
our mother country. '^ 

" There is," continued Kinsey, " no sound 
reason for fear. 'No war has yet been de- 
clared between France and England, nor is 
there any immediate prospect. The Assem- 
bly is loyal to the crown, and willing, so far 
as their religious persuasions permit, to pro- 
tect the lives and property of the citizens." 
The Governor did not feel satisfied to let mat- 
ters rest here until some real danger appeared. 
He wished to convince the Assembly that it 
was in the wrong, in order that he might be 
prepared should war come. He took umbrage 
at John Kinsey's remark that the Assembly 
had but little faith in any preparations made 
in the province independent of England's 
assistance. This Governor Thomas consid- 



JOHl^ KINSE7. 

ered a reflection upon his own personal skill 
as a military leader. Does any one suppose, 
writes Governor Thomas, that the powers of 
a captain-general as set forth in AYilliam 
Penn's charter " can operate upon a free peo- 
ple without the interposition of a particular 
law? Any person of a small share of knowl- 
edge in the constitution of his country " could 
easily see that. " Is any man obliged without 
law to equip himself with arms and necessary 
accoutrements, to learn the use of them, to 
obey his ofiicers, or even to face his enemy in 
time of danger? An officer without legal au- 
thority, and men under no legal obligations, 
may indeed exhibit a pretty piece of pagentry 
for a little time, but can be of no real seiwice 
in the defence of a country, or be long kept to- 
gether, for as humor brought them together 
caprice will soon disband them." (Pa. Col. 
Kec, Vol. IV., p. 320.) 

The Governor also undertakes to show the 
Assembly that the peace principles of its mem- 
bers are not in accord with the views of Wil- 
liam Perm. " Surely since our first Pro- 
prietor received a charter from the King con- 

27 



^TOnN KINSEY. 

taining provisions for the defence of the col- 
ony, he was not, though commonly called a 
Quaker, averse to military methods, and must 
have entertained opinions quite different from 
those held by the present Assembly. If your 
body agTee — and I think you do — that no 
principles of peace are violated when a man is 
punished with death for a violation of some 
provincial statute, how can you insist that war, 
which occurs in defence of our homes and our 
dependent ones, is any worse than the execu- 
tion of our laws? Indeed, any man of com- 
mon understanding must admit that no con- 
scientious principles, no religious opinions, 
can save us from invasion, from outrage and 
plunder. '^ 

Again on behalf of the Assembly John 
Kinsey replied. He called attention to the 
many advantages of Pennsylvania which re- 
duced the danger from invasion to a mini- 
mum, and since many of the citizens were 
able and willing to bear arms if it came to 
that, Kinsey felt that there was no occasion 
for alarm. The Assembly, however, he says, 
'' cannot exactly agree with the Governor's 
28 



Jonif KINSEY. 

sentiments when he tells us that no Purity of 
heart, no set of Religious Principles, will pro- 
tect us from our enemy; for as there is an 
Almighty Power which superintends the gov- 
ernment of the world, principles of Religion 
agreeable to his will and Purity of heart, even 
as the world is at present circumstanced, may 
hope for his protection, who can turn the 
hearts of men as he pleases, and who for the 
sake of ten righteous Persons, would have 
spared even the cities of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah." (Pa. Col. Rec, Yol lY., p. 373.) 

In reference to the administration of the 
criminal law being a violation of the peace 
principles of Friends, John Kinsey replied 
that there is a vast "' difference between kill- 
ing a soldier fighting (perhaps) in obedience 
to the commands of his sovereign and who 
may possibly think himself in the discharge 
of his duty, and executing a burglar who 
broke into our houses, plundered us of our 
goods and perhaps would have murdered us 
too, if he could not otherwise have accom- 
plished his ends, who must know at the time 
of the commission of the fact [deed] it was a 
29 



JOHN KIN8E7. 

violation of laws humane and divine, and that 
he thereby justly rendered himself obnoxious 
[subject] to the punishment which ensued." 
(Pa. Col. Eec, Vol. lY., p. 373.) 

" The Friends have principles/' he con- 
tinued, " which they feel constrained to sup- 
port, but they are willing to yield obedience 
to the crown and to pay tribute to Caesar; 
therefore if it becomes necessary they will fur- 
nish a sum of money for the King's use." The 
dispute now continued upon the necessity of 
putting the colony in a state of defence. It 
was the summer of 1739. The Assembly saw 
no such need. The Governor, on the other 
hand, was positive that there was a pressing 
necessity upon the colony. 

At heart the Assembly was opposed to any 
legislation which would force the Friends into 
military service against their convictions. 
The Governor was just as anxious to secure 
legislation which would enable him to raise 
and equip a force of soldiers and build forts 
for defence. 



30 



JOEN KIN8ET. 

ATTEMPTS TO ARKEST ISRAEL PEMBERTON. 

About this time Israel Pemberton, Jr., in 
conversation with Alexander Grajdon, made 
some remarks reflecting upon the " disinter- 
estedness of the Governor's motives." These 
remarks in some way were reported to the 
Governor, who became very much incensed, 
and laid the matter before the council, with 
the statement that such conversation had a 
tendency " to break the Peace of the Govern- 
ment, and to destroy that confidence and Har- 
mony which ought to be carefully preserved 
between the Governor and the People." 

Governor Thomas then desired the council 
to summon Alexander Graydon and learn 
from him exactly what Israel Pemberton did 
say. At this hearing it appeared that Israel 
Pemberton had said that everybody knew 
what the Governor was before he came over, 
and what they had to expect from him; that 
Governor Thomas was bent on overcoming 
Penn's concessions of 1701 and making a 
royal province of Pennsylvania ; that the Gov- 
ernor carried on his dispute with the Assem- 
bly in a very flippant manner, and doubtless 
31 



JOHl^ KINSEY. 

he " would make use of all his friends to set 
the Assembly in the wrong, and he would not 
hesitate to make an unjust representation ol 
the matter.'' 

And Graydon further reported that when 
Pemberton was told that the Governor had 
heard what had been said, instead of express- 
ing any regret for what he had done, Pem- 
berton went so far as to say that " he was very 
glad it had come to the Governor's knowl- 
edge, since by this means he had heard truths 
which the Sycophants who had kept the Gov- 
ernor's company would never tell him." 
Graydon was then asked to withdraw from 
the council, and the Governor proposed that 
a warrant be issued to bring Israel Pemberton 
before the council to answer such charges as 
the Governor saw fit to bring against him. 

Thomas Lawrence, one of the members, ex- 
pressed a doubt about the council's having 
any legal right to issue such a warrant. The 
Governor replied that so far as law was con- 
cerned the Governor had a legal right to issue 
any warrant whatsoever. Who then could 
doubt " the Governor's power, as supreme 
32 



JOE^tf KINSE7. 

Magistrate of the Province^ to issue a warrant 
to bring such persons before him for exami- 
nation on his Majesty's behalf as were charged 
with matters tending to a breach of the Peace 
of the Government^'? 

To this Clement Plumstead, another mem- 
ber of the council, replied that " If the mat- 
ter concerned the Governor's character only, 
he should think the Governor a very improper 
person to issue such a warrant, the law hav- 
ing provided a remedy; but as it might affect 
the peace of the Government, he thought it 
very proper that the Governor should sign 
the warrant that said Pemberton might be 
publicly examined before the council.'' (Pa. 
Col. Eec, Yol. lY., p. 390.) 

Xone of the board objecting to this, Gov- 
ernor Thomas signed the wan-ant and caused 
it to be delivered to the sheriff with orders to 
use Israel Pemberton " with civility," and if 
it were possible to get him before the council 
without using the warrant to do so. 

That afternoon the council sat waiting for 
the sheriff to bring in the prisoner, but he 
did not come. While thus waiting there was 
33 



JOHI^' KINSET. 

a knock at the door, and Thomas Griffiths, 
one of the council and a justice of the peace, 
was called out. When he returned he 
brought the following report from the sheriff, 
who stated that after taking Israel Pemberton 
into custody, Thomas Griffiths, one of the 
justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylva- 
nia, furnished a writ of habeas corpus and the 
necessary bail for Israel Pemberton to appear 
at the next session of the Supreme Court; 
'' therefore,'' said the sheriff, " I cannot bring 
him before the Governor to-day.'' 

When the writ of habeas corpus was read 
the Governor said that he believed that such 
a thing had never occurred before. To take 
a person so suspected out of the hands of an 
officer of the law by such a writ, he believed 
w^as in every w^ay illegal. The Governor ex- 
pressed his surprise that a magistrate of the 
Supreme Court sliould allow himself to sign 
such a writ '' without consulting some person 
learned in the lav/, or even taking time to ex- 
ercise his own understanding or judgment." 

Thomas Griffiths said that he had no 
thought of doing anything out of the legal 
34 



J05¥ KINSEY. 

course. The sheriff was then called in and 
questioned. He said that he called upon Israel 
Pemberton, Jr., and requested him to accom- 
pany him to the council, but Pemberton re- 
fused, whereupon the w^arrant was served 
upon him. When Pemberton read it he pro- 
nounced it nonsense, and went to the house of 
John Kinsey, Esq., where he was being har- 
bored. 

The Governor declared that the writ of 
habeas corpus w^as illegal, and the sheriff was 
responsible for Israel Pemberton's escape. 
The council adjourned, and Governor Thomas 
consulted some lawyers. Meanwhile Israel 
Pemberton had gone to Chester, and the 
council wasted another day waiting for the 
arrest. 

The sheriff reported that he had been at 
the house of Israel Pemberton several times, 
and was invariably told that he \vas not at 
home. Once Pemberton was seen walking 
before his door, but when the sheriff' came up 
Israel was nowhere to be found. 

The Governor, when he heard this, de- 
clared that such conduct clearly proved Pem- 
35 



JOHN KINSE7. 

berton's guilt. In the meantime the indigna- 
tion of the people was growing. It was not 
whether Israel Pemberton was or was not 
guilty, but it centered upon the Governor's 
right as an executive officer to proceed in 
such a manner against persons whose conduct 
was reported as seditious. 

The tendency of the Governor's faction was 
to fuse the functions of the judicial and execu- 
tive. The tendency in the people's party was 
to separate more and more those functions 
until the executive should deal only with pres- 
ent time, and the judicial only with past time. 
The people were unconsciously struggling 
toward that conception of a supreme judiciary 
and a supreme legislative which Alexander 
Hamilton so happily expressed in our present 
federal constitution. 

John XiiL-ey voiced the popular sentiment 
when he insisted that the Governor had no 
legal right to proceed against Israel Pember- 
ton in the manner he did; that the law fur- 
nished a course, and that George Thomas, be- 
cause he was Governor, had no right to be a 
law unto himself, and to resolve the high ex- 
36 



JOHl^ KIN8EY. 

ecutive into a judicial tribunal to try cases of 
offence and libel against himself personally. 

Andrew Hamilton, the Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court, sustained Kinsey's opinion 
and advised the Governor accordingly. 

At the next meeting of the council the 
Governor said " that we was content to with- 
draw the warrant for the present, and pro- 
ceed against Israel Pemberton, Jr., in some 
other way." E^othing further was done in 
the case. The judicial department of the 
province had won a point from the executive, 
and the Pembertons were marked men by the 
Governor's faction, though it dared not 
strike. 

The foiled blow was restrained many years 
until a radical change in Pennsylvania politics 
enabled some of these same men to be instru- 
mental in sending the Pembertons and several 
so-called Quakers into exile in Yirginia. 

JOHN KINSEY LEADS THE ASSEMBLY. 

The struggle during John Kinsey's time 
was more directly between the legislative and 

37 



JOHN EIN8EY. 

the executive. Here the battle waged. Each 
sought to invade the functions of the other, 
and each jealously defended what it then con- 
sidered its own rights and privileges. 

The Assembly charged the Governor with 
a desire to destroy the peace and good under- 
standing in the several parts of the legislature. 
The Governor not only desired the change, 
but said that " since one-half of the power of 
making the laws is vested in the Governor for 
the time being, you must allow me to exercise 
my reason in considering the good of the 
whole government when any bills shall be laid 
before me for my assent. The Assembly has 
power sufficient, if rightly exercised, to make 
any people happy; but if once they attempt 
by any means whatsoever to wrest what be- 
longs to the Governor out of his hands, it wdll 
be a breach upon the constitution, and intro- 
ductive of great discontent and confusion." 
(Pa. Col. Rec, Vol. lY., p. 407.) 

On the other hand, it was the avowed pur- 
pose of the Assembly, under John Kinsey's 
leadership, to not only prevent the Governor 
from infringing upon the duties of the leg- 
38 



JOH:tJ KINSEY. 

islature, but to secure for the Assembly as 
large a measure of prerogative as possible. 

In the spring of 1740 England declared 
war with Spain, and asked the colonies to fur- 
nish aid. The Governor of Pennsylvania 
was requested to furnish whatever quota of 
men and supplies the loyalty of her citizens 
should suggest. The Governor, with charac- 
teristic vigor, urged the Assembly to prompt 
and vigorous measures. John Kinsey at once 
asked for the King's instructions to the Gov- 
ernor. This was promptly refused. Then 
Robert Jones and John Wright, two assem- 
blymen, waited upon the Governor with a 
note from Benjamin Franklin, clerk of the 
Assembly, saying that " in the only case the 
house remembers wherein a matter of like na- 
ture was required of them by the Crown the 
original letter " was sent to the house, there- 
fore in this case the Assembly requests a copy 
of the Governor's instructions. 

While the dispute was raging over the 
legality of this matter, the Assembly was at 
work on an appropriation bill which was for 
the King's use. The Governor was also ac- 



joh:n kinsey. 

tively employed in raising soldiers from the 
province. Special inducements were offered 
to white indentured servants, large numbers 
of whom readily enlisted; by so doing they 
evaded their obligation to their masters, and 
expected at the close of the war to receive 
their liberty. Harvest time was now ap- 
proaching, and as soon as the majority of the 
assemblymen learned that their bond ser- 
vants had run oif to the army there was a gen- 
eral clamor to have the extra session ad- 
journed until after harvest, 

John Kinsey, the speaker, had pressing 
local engagements in Delaware. The air was 
full of rumors that England was about to 
make peace with Spain. Scarcely any one in 
the province, outside of the Governor's imme- 
diate faction, felt that there was any danger 
from invasion. The other colonies were do- 
ing little or nothing in the matter, conse- 
quently the Assembly adjourned until after 
harvest. 

The Governor looked upon this adjourn- 
ment as an act of discourtesy to him, and clear 
proof that the Assembly was not going to pass 
40 



JOHl^ EINSE7. 

any money bill. Accordingly he charged the 
Assembly with a breach of loyalty to the 
Crown, with an act of discourtesy to the Gov^ 
emor, and with an overplns of Quaker prin- 
ciples which blocked much-needed legisla- 
tion. 

Indeed, the Governor saw^ no reason why 
any private business should interfere with the 
duties of the legislature. Harvest might be 
left to the servants, and if Speaker John Kin- 
sey must go to Delaware, were there not 
other men in the Assembly of abilitj' equal to 
his? 

All these opinions, however, seem to have 
been lost upon the Assembly. The members 
went, like the Romans of old, to labor in their 
harvest fields, and John Kinsey went to Dela- 
ware. 

THE MONEY BILL. 

When the Assembly again convened the 
following message was sent to the Governor: 

" AVe have often had occasion to acquaint 

the Governor that the greater number of the 

present Assembly are of the people called 

Quakers, principled against bearing arms or 

41 



JOHN KINSET. 

applying money to any such purposes. De- 
sirouSj however, to demonstrate our obedience 
to our present Sovereign, King George, by 
yielding a ready and cheerful complyance in 
the matters recommended to us so far as our 
religious persuasions would permit, and will- 
ing to give ample testimony of the loyalty and 
sincere affection of his loving subjects within 
this Province, we determined at our last meet- 
ing that a sum of money should be raised for 
the use of the Crown exceeding in proportion, 
as we think, what is given in some neighbor- 
ing Colonies. Several difficulties occurred to 
us whilst that matter was under consideration. 
The public accounts were then unsettled, and 
it was unknown what money remained in the 
treasury. We obser^^ed also great numbers 
of bought servants, belonging to the inhabi- 
tants of this Province, encouraged to that pur- 
pose, had enlisted in the King's service, and 
were detained from their masters, to their 
great loss and to the injury of the public. . . . 
The officers were enlisting our servants in 
great numbers in the country, and labor in this 
ycung Colony, excepting what is performed 

42 



JOHN KINSE7. 

by these servants, is difficult to obtain. ... It 
must have been known to the Governor that 
servants were encouraged to enlist, and that 
the names of those who enlisted were directed 
to be concealed, which concealment and the 
severe treatment those masters who applied 
for their servants received from the persons 
appointed to take the names of such as should 
apply to enlist themselves, gave the servants 
an opportunity of escaping from their masters 
and the King's sendee," which a number did 
before the Assembly had any opportunity to 
offer a bounty for freemen. (Pa. Col. Rec, 
Vol. TV., pp. 435-9.) 

The Assembly finally informed the Gov- 
ernor that his action had delayed the money 
bill and seriously embarrassed its passage. 

The Governor expostulated, explained and 
argued; then finally, with great reluctance, 
yielded to the Assembly a copy of the King's 
instructions. The servants who had enlisted, 
he said, could not be returned. He endeav- 
ored to justify the act by the statement that 
the Assembly had offered no bounty for free- 
men, and he was sure enough soldiers could 



J0E:N EIN8EY. 

not have been procured without the servants. 

The Assembly declared that a money bill 
depended entirely upon the Governor's will- 
ingness to have the servants returned and no 
more to be enlisted. The Governor found 
himself cornered^ and yielded, l^o more ser- 
vants w^ere to be taken, and so far as possible 
those in the service should be returned. 

The Assembly then passed the money bill, 
appropriating £3,000 current money of the 
province to the King's use. Here the Gov- 
ernor again claimed to have been grossly 
used: (1) In having trustees appointed to hold 
the money, instead of placing it in the Gov- 
ernor's hands; (2) in that this money w^as to 
be in bills of credit and not in coin. The 
Governor wanted the money raised by a tax; 
the Assembly wanted an increased issue of 
bills of credit. 

The Governor at first refused to approve 
the money bill as framed, but since his in- 
structions were not very definite upon that 
point, he yielded, and the money was forth- 
coming. This was a much larger sum than 
was furnished by any other province. 
44 



JOHN KIN8ET. 
THE MILITIA BILL. 

Governor Thomas then asked the Assembly 
to pass a militia bill. This it refused to do 
on the basis of being opposed to war measures. 
The Governor accordingly insisted upon 
showing the Assembly the inconsistency of its 
Quaker ways. " If your principles will not 
allow you to pass a bill for establishing a 
militia, if they will not allow you to secure 
the navigation of the river by building a fort, 
if they will not allow you to provide arms for 
the defence of the inhabitants, if they will 
not allow you to raise men for His Majesty's 
service and on His Majesty's affectionate ap- 
plication to you for distressing an insolent 
enemy, if they (your principles) will not allow 
you to raise and appropriate money to the uses 
recommended by His Majesty, it is a calumny 
to say that your principles are inconsistent 
with the ends of government. . . . Whatever 
name some of your proprietors bear, they 
have truly the honor of His Majesty and the 
British nation, as well as the interest of this 
nation, at heart, and therefore instructed me 
long since to use my endeavors with the As- 
45 



joe:n kinsey. 

sembly to provide for its defence; and al- 
though the majority of your house oppose all 
these things, I know there are some few of 
the same religious persuasion in it, and many 
out of it, who dislike all your proceedings. It 
is not that I have attempted to divide you 
from your Friends in England. Indeed, 
your own actions may do it ; you have likewise 
divided yourselves from many of the inhabi- 
tants here by consultations and by exerting 
yourselves in consequence of them publickly 
and avowedly to obtain an uncommon major- 
ity in this Assembly to oppose my endeavors 
for the security of His Majesty's dominions. 

" This is a fact so notorious that every man 
that knows anything of what passes in the 
province knows it; and that the counsel of 
such, even of your own persuasion, was des- 
pised, who warned you of the ill consequences 
that would attend it, and advised you not to 
interrupt that harmony which had sitbsisted 
for many years betwixt the people of the dif- 
ferent religious societies here. ... As ser- 
vants cannot now be discharged, even suppos- 
ing I had the power so to do, without evident 

46 



JOHN KIN8E7. 

danger of a mutiny^ and breaking all the 
seven companies raised in this government, I 
shall willingly submit my conduct and the 
proceeding of your house to His Majesty. 

"I am glad, however, though it be with a 
view of throwing the blame upon me, to find 
that your house, who upon the 7th of July 
last could not preserve good consciences and 
come into levying of money and appropriating 
it to the uses recommended to you in my 
speech, because it is repugnant to the religious 
principles professed by the greater number 
of the present Assembly who are of the people 
called Quakers, can now ^x the number of 
three hundred to be a sufficient proportion of 
men for this Province, and that upon condi- 
tion the servants are discharged, you are will- 
ing to give such a sum of money to the Crown 
as may be a fit proportion as what is given by 
the neighboring Colonies. And I hope after 
this declaration that you will not say that I 
willing mistake you (misinterpret you) when 
I understand the money to be for the same 
uses. The making my conduct, however, a 
pretense for refusing to comply with His 
47 



JOHN KINSEY. 

Majesty's instructions, cannot be looked upon 
as an instance of zeal in yon." (Pa. Col. 
Eec, Yol. IV., pp. 465-6.) 

While this document of the Governor's 
was in course of construction, he was receiv- 
ing letters from the officers of the seven com- 
panies he had raised, desiring to know what 
was to be done with the servants in their com- 
mands. It would be impossible to discharge 
them now. Indeed, they would not be dis- 
charged; and it was all the officers could do 
to prevent them from outraging their foiTaer 
masters and committing depredations upon 
the property of the members of the Assem- 
bly. The Governor had truly an embarras- 
sing problem upon his hands. There was no 
war and no need of the soldiers, yet they 
could not be disbanded. 

The officers as well as the Governor were 
heartily tired of their existence as an army. 
Those untrained men, with firearms in their 
hands, became a dangerous element in the 
peaceful Pennsylvania community. Their 
threats became the gossip of the day. They 
naturally magnified the cimelty and oppres- 
sion of their masters. 

48 



JOEl^ KINSET. 

Tlien a legal question arose: Has the gov- 
ernment a right to deprive a man of hi? 
property? The Governor was forced to ac- 
knowledge that the owners should be com- 
pensated for their losses. The Assembly 
was brought face to face with the problem. 
Property had been taken for war purposes. 

John Kinsey held that the Assembly 
should pay the masters. It was done. From 
two to three thousand pounds were paid out 
in damages. This incensed the Assembly 
toward the Governor. While John Kinsey 
had insisted that the government had no right 
to impair contracts, it was generally felt that 
this extra expense was caused entirely by the 
Governor's rashness. They accordingly held 
back a portion of his salary. 

The Governor's indignation was sweeping 
away his judgment. He charged the Assem- 
bly with partiality and favoritism in paying 
out the m.oney to the masters of the enlisted 
servants : 

" You did this/' said he, " not according to 
the servant's value, but to the master's appro- 
bation or disapprobation of the Assembly's 
proceedings. 



JOEN KIN8ET. 

" In my last message I said that fifteen hun- 
dred pounds of the twenty-five hundred paid 
for servants had been stopt out of my sup- 
port. In answer to which you tell me I may 
remember that since my accession to the gov- 
ernment I have received divers sums of 
money arising from fines, forfeitures, licens- 
ing public houses, and other perquisites of 
government, amounting from the best judg- 
ment you can form to near one thousand 
pounds per annum, which is double the yearly 
salary some of your former Governors re- 
ceived." (Pa. Col. Rec, Vol. lY., pp. 444- 
5.) 

THE governor's SALARY. 

The battle raged more fiercely around the 
salary question than any other. The war of 
the Austrian succession (1744-48), known in 
America as King George's War, stirred the 
Governor and the Assembly to a renewed 
struggle. The Governor demanded money. 
The Assembly voted bills of credit. The Gov- 
ernor refused to approve, and in the heat of 
the controversy which followed each recrimi- 
nated the other personally. The contest was 
50 



JOEl^ KIN8E7. 

especially bitter between George Thomas and 
John Kinsey. 

In 1747 George Thomas resigTied from the 
governorship, and went to England for his 
health. From that time nntil 1750, during 
the remainder of John Kinsey's life, the As- 
sembly obtained the ascendency. 

Anthony Palmer, one of the council, had 
been chosen as Governor in Thomas's place. 
He was unable to hold any permanent and 
tenable position in the controversy with John 
Kinsey. Slowly he lost the dignity and in- 
fluence of a chief executive. Even John 
Kinsey felt sore under Palmer's censure, and 
resented it in the following terms: 

'' You are pleased to say that we are not ac- 
countable to each other for our conduct. Give 
us leave to wish that you had thought of this 
before you had bestowed so heavy censure on 
ours. It might have saved both you and us 
some trouble. 

" You are pleased to add, ^ You had no 

party views, no personal interest, or power to 

support.' It may be, since you are pleased 

to say it; but when this is urged as a motive 

51 



JOE^t^ KINSEY. 

to your being the more readily believed, in 
opposition to the representative body of the 
Province, it seems to require a little demon- 
stration. If it was, as you are pleased to say, 
really ' well known that during your admin- 
istration your time has been chiefly employed 
in the service of the country/ etc., there was 
the less necessity you should become the pub- 
lisher of it. But you are pleased to add how 
we have assisted you; and those who to their 
immortal honor joined with you in the neces- 
sary work you mention, all the world knows. 

" If those who joined with you deserve im- 
mortal honor, how much more do you de- 
serve? Enjoy unmolested all the honor, all 
the applause you think fit to bestow upon 
yourselves; but why must you deprecate the 
character of others? Since you are pleased 
to allow we are not accountable to you for our 
conduct, whence then do you derive your 
right of censuring, or of what you expressed 
yet more indecently, of exposing? 

" In the height of the late controversies 
such expressions were not used that we re- 
member, and we are at a loss to find from 
62 



JOEN KIN8E7. 

whence you could copy such language to the 
Representative Body of a Province. 

'^ Besides, when the event [results of King 
George's war] has shown the judgment 
formed by the Assembly was right, and saved 
the Province some thousand pounds, we think 
you might have spared those censures be- 
stowed thus unprovoked. What motives? 
could we possibly have for judging amiss '^ 
Have we not also estates and families in the 
Province? Have we not many of us drawn 
our first breath here ? Have not divers of our 
Fathers and some of our Grandfathers been 
of the first settlers? What inducements can 
we possibly have to bias us against the inter- 
est of our country ? " 

As leader of the Assembly, John Kinsey en- 
larged and defined the duties of the legisla- 
tive, and separated the judicial to a consider- 
able extent from the executive. 

THE INDIAN PROBLEM. 

The most vital place, however, where the 
vigor of John Kinsey and the Assembly comes 
to the surface, is in the great Indian struggle. 

63 



JOHN KINSEY. 

When Champlain, led by his Algonquin 
allies, entered the lake which bears his name, 
a sharp engagement occurred with the Iro- 
quois. Twice was Champlain repulsed by 
these fearless men of the " Long-House.'^ 
This led French explorers to abandon all 
dreams of pushing south into the Hudson 
Eiver basin, and turned them into the colder 
waters of the Ottawa. The Iroquois became 
the avowed enemy of the French and the 
warm friend of the English. They liked the 
Dutch traders, and assisted l^ew York and 
New England during Queen Anne's war 
(1701-1713.) 

So terrible were the blows of Frontenac, 
the great French leader, that the Iroquois al- 
liance became an expensive thing to the Five 
Nations. During the long peace which pre- 
ceded King George's War (1744-8), the 
French used every effort to heal past diffi- 
culties with the Iroquois. Presents became 
numerous and valuable. 

In the meantime Pennsylvania became in- 
terested in the Iroquois. Since the days of 
William Penn the Friends of Pennsylvania 
54 



JOHN KINSE7. 

had dealt almost entirely with the Algonquin 
tribes of the Delaware and Susquehanna riv- 
ers. The Tnlpehocken settlement and the 
advent of Conrad AYeiser mark the beginning 
of the Iroquois supremacy in the colony. 

Conrad Weiser led the Governor and his 
party to realize that the Iroquois were the 
dominant tribes, and that the Delawares and 
their wayward cousins, the Shawnees, had no 
rights which an Iroquois was bound to ob- 
serve. The Assembly and the people's party, 
the Friends in both Pennsylvania and I^ew 
Jersey, continued to support the interests of 
the Delaware Indians, and to some extent dis- 
approved the lavish expenditures for the Iro- 
quois. 

The Governor's faction, led by Conrad 
Weiser, were straining every nerve to outbid 
the French and retain the friendship and the 
trade of the Six Xations. At the opening of 
King George's War the diplomatic Iroquois 
realized their vantage ground. l^eutrality 
meant that they would be courted and feasted 
and showered with presents by both the 
French and the English. If they joined 

55 



JOEt^ KINSE7. 

either side the price of furs would go down 
and the income from presents would fall off. 
Thus reasoned the fathers of the " Long- 
House." 

The friendship of the Iroquois for Colonel 
Johnson and the Governor of 'New York, for 
Conrad Weiser and the Governor of Penn- 
sylvania, led many men to hope that an al- 
liance could be secured, and the Iroquois 
turned loose to scour the lake region for 
French scalps. 

Upon the subject of Indian affairs Gov- 
ernor Thomas and John Kinsey had few dis- 
putes. Kinsey recognized the Governor's 
marked influence and ability with the Indians, 
and being ignorant of the fact that Conrad 
Weiser was the source of it all, bestowed his 
compliments upon Governor Thomas. It be- 
came more and more the custom for the As- 
sembly to provide for the expense of Indian 
treaties. This, under the leadership of John 
Kinsey, was done with a generous hand. In 
1742, when the Iroquois chastised the Dela- 
wares in the Philadelphia Conference, calling 
them women and forbidding them to sell any 
56 



JOB-N KIN8E7. 

more land, the Friends in the Assembly were 
very much incensed, as they had been over 
the Walking Purchase, which also imposed 
upon the Delaware Indians. 

This growing discontent with the Govern- 
or's Indian policy was restrained by the strong 
hand of John Kinsey. But when Governor 
Thomas wished to join with I^ew England and 
I^Tew York in a general Indian conference tc 
induce the Indians to take up the hatchet 
against the French, John Kinsey said " No." 

When Governor Thomas asked the Assem- 
bly to furnish funds for the Albany treaty 
(1746), the Assembly replied as follows: 

" By what we gather " from the Governor's 
letter, " the treaty proposed to be held at Al- 
bany on the twentieth of next month, in pur- 
suance of some instructions the Governor of 
Xew York hath received from the Crown," 
does not concern us, but the Governor of New 
York only, " and not the Governor of any 
other of the Colonies. 

" It is not improbable that the purport of 
these instructions is to engage the Indians of 
the Six Nations in the war against the French, 
57 



JOHl^ KIN8E7. 

and to join in the expedition against Canada. 
If so, onr uniting with the other goverumentc 
in the congress proposed will be of little use, 
since it cannot be doubted but that provision 
is made to defray the expense which shall 
arise thereby, and that these Indians will pay 
greater regard to the directions of the Crown 
than to the joint request of all the Colonies. 

" Besides, the Governor must be sensible 
that men of our peaceable principles cannot 
consistently therewith join in persuading the 
Indians to engage in the war. If it be 
thought there be any real danger of the In- 
dians deserting the British interests and go- 
ing over to the French, and that to preserve 
them steady in their friendship further pres- 
ents are necessary to secure them in theii* 
fidelity to the Crown of Great Britain and 
amity w^ith the inhabitants of this and the 
neighboring Colonies, and the Governor can 
think his health and business will permit his 
negotiating this affair in person, we shall be 
willing to pay the expense to arise by it. 

" JoHisr KiNSEY, Speaker. 

" Fourth month 24th, 1746." 



JOHN KIN8ET. 

Governor Thomas was not able to go to the 
Albany treaty, and a board of commissioners 
was sent, of which John Kinsey was chair- 
man. These gentlemen, with Conrad Weisei 
as interpreter, rode on horseback across Xew 
Jersey, and held a preliminary conference in 
New York with the Governor and the com- 
missioners from Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut. The Xew England men favored a joint 
treaty, — one that would show the Indians the 
strength and unity of the colonies, and be 
therefore more influential in breaking the 
neutrality of the Iroquois. To this John 
Kinsey objected: " (1) Because it would take 
time to prepare a treaty to which all the 
colonies present could subscribe. (2) Be- 
cause it would introduce subjects of no con« 
cern to Pennsylvania. (3) Since the New 
England colonies insisted that the Six Nations 
should declare war against the French, Penn- 
sylvania must oppose it until the legislatures 
of the colonies could be consulted. (4) An 
Indian war would be injurious to all the colo- 
nies, as it would be the means of drawing 
open hostilities upon all our borders. (5) 



JOHl^ KINSET. 

Tlie Six ]^ations wished to remain neutral. 
The Indians were not disposed to fight each 
other, and should we enlist the Six JSTations 
on the English side, we might expect what 
occurred during the last war, when the In- 
dians of oi)posite parties passed each other 
without fighting and only scalped the white 
people. (6) If we induce the Six E'ations to 
declare war with the French we must provide 
for them. This cannot be done without the 
consent of our colonial Assemblies, and not to 
do this would be betraying the Indians. How 
do we know now what our Assemblies may 
do V 

These objections of John Kinsey's had but 
little influence upon the other states. They 
were determined to push the Six Nations into 
the war with the French. Massachusetts said 
it was unreasonable that the entire burden of 
the war should rest on one province while the 
others remained neutral; and if the neutral 
colonies were determined not to bear their 
share of the war expenses they should not use 
influences to prevent the Iroquois from be- 
coming allies of the New England provinces. 



JOHN KIN8E7. 

Nevertheless John Kinsev and his peace 
principles divided the council of the colonies. 
New York was convinced by John Kinsey's 
fifth and sixth reasons, and told Massachusetts 
that New England had been too precipitate in 
her declaration of war and the other govern- 
ments were not obliged to follow her example* 
Proper provisions were not yet made for a 
war. New York had done all she could to 
prepare for such an event, and New England 
must remember that provinces with a long, 
unprotected frontier should not be dragged 
into a war for wdiich they were not pre- 
pared. 

The Indians at Albany were not ignorant 
of the division of sentiment in the colonial 
council. They knew that Pennsylvania was 
forbidden to treat with the Indians during 
the negotiations of the other colonies. Dur- 
ing the treaty the Indians declined to take up 
the hatchet against the French, and advised 
the English to remain united in all their coun- 
cils and be of one mind and one heart. 

It was the disagreement among the colonies 
which enabled the Iroquois to escape the 

61 



JOHl^ KIN8BT. 

colonial pressure and remain neutral. This 
disagreement in the colonial councils was 
caused by John Kinsey, and was in opposition 
to the advice of Conrad Weiser, who wanted 
the Six I^ations to take up the hatchet against 
the French. Weiser could mould the opin- 
ions of Governor Thomas to his own liking, 
but John Kinsey could not be controlled. 

Thus, indirectly, John Kinsey aided the 
Iroquois in presei-ving the neutrality, and 
postponed until another war (1754-59) the 
time when the councils of the " Long-House " 
should be divided and the Iroquois should be 
ground between the surging waves of Anglo- 
Saxon and Romish forces. 

LIFE AT THE 

John Kinsey's later years were a constant 
growth in activity. He lived for a number 
of years at the " Plantation." It w^as then 
considered a charming country residence, and 
was located at the present site of the United 
States Naval Hospital. Before the consolida- 
tion of the City of Philadelphia this property 
was included in the district of Passyunk. 
62 



JOHIf KINSET. 

The " Plantation " was in no sense of tlie 
word a farm. It comprised a tract of about 
twenty-three acres, bounded by Gray's Ferry 
road and Shippen (now Bainbridge) street, 
with Sutherland avenue on one side and the 
walled-in river on the other. Here the Kin- 
sey family lived after 1735. From the dor- 
mered doorway or spreading windows John 
Kinsey's eye might follow the curl of the 
river or rest on the shaded slopes of the Bar- 
tram forest beyond. Here the great lawyer 
might turn aside from affairs of state, might 
forget that he was the acknowledged leader 
of the Assembly, the trustee of the loan office, 
attorney-general, or in his later years Chief 
Justice of the Supreme Court. Here he 
might forget the duties devolving upon the 
clerk of the Yearly Meeting and an elder in 
the Society of Friends. Here John Kinsey 
came to rest. It was a hospitable and spread- 
ing brick mansion, with broad hall through 
the center and two handsome rooms on each 
side. The rooms of the second story were 
under the sloping roof, and were lighted by 
huge dormer windows. The top of the house 



J0F2V KIWSE7. 

was formed into a balcony which commanded 
a charming view over the then nndammed and 
unpolluted Schuylkill. 

While " Plantation " w^as the place where 
John Kinsey came to rest, the place where he 
came to forget the cares and burdens of a busy 
and useful life, he never could forget, as he 
crossed that threshold, how his son John, in 
the flower of early manhood, had gone out 
from that home in the morning of the day 
and dawn of promise, never to return. 



In a letter written by John Ross, a mem- 
ber of the Philadelphia Bar, to Dr. Cadwalla- 
der Evans in Jamaica, in 1748, we find the 
following : " I could tell you all the news in 
a w^ord, if possible, with all haste. To begin, 
our neighborhood is just as you left us, only 
B. Franklin lives in your house. The Col. 
Hollier not yet gone to sea. I think all your 
acquaintances continue well, save poor 
Johnny Kinsey, junior, on Tuesday the 8th 
inst. by accident shot himself dead while 
coming Gray's FeiTy by Schuylkill falls while 
64 



JOHiY KINSEY. 

in a boat. He bad loaded bis gun, and as is 
supposed let tbe butt drop on tlie bottom of 
tbe seat ; tbe gun erect, in a line witb bis body 
by bis side, went off wben balf cocked. Tbe 
wbole load of sbot struck bis left cbeek and 
went directly into bis brain. He dropt, and 
was dead in an instant; never groaned. 
Great sorrow attended bis fatber and all bis 
friends for tbe accident. He bad strange ap- 
paritions of bis deatb tbe nigbt before, wbicb 
be informed bis aunt Bowene of at breakfast 
tbat morning of tbe accident, wbicb I must 
relate you, as it is as true as surprising. He 
talked witb bis aunt at breakfast concerning 
his being admitted as an attorney and going 
into business, said be believed be bad notb- 
ing to do witb business, for bis time be 
tbougbt was not long in tbis world. He said 
tbat last nigbt be was strangely disturbed in 
bis sleep witb dreams and apparitions; tbat bis 
cousin Cbarles Pemberton, wbo died last 
spring, appeared to bim wrapped in a sbeet 
and said to bim, ' Kinsey, your bour is come; 
you must go witb me,' and be disappeared. 
Soon after appeared a person before bim in 
65 



JOHN KINSEY. 

the form of an angel (according to the idea 
he had of an angel) and said to him, ' Kinsey, 
your hour is come; you must go with me/ and 
instantly he thought a flash of lightning 
struck him on the cheek, and instantly he 
died. This was followed by a severe clap of 
thunder and lightning that awakened him 
from his sleep, and all these particulars came 
fresh to his memory and gave him great un- 
easiness. (iNote: no thunder or lightning 
that night.) Upon this he endeavored to get 
to sleep again, and after dosing a short time 
he was awakened again by the noise of a per- 
son walking across the room, giving one heavy 
groan. He heard or saw no more, but got 
out of bed, went into the other room, called 
the Scotch boy to bring in his bed and lay by 
him the remainder of the night. In the 
morning at breakfast, Tuesday last, he com- 
municated all the before related to his aunt 
Bowene and Hannah Kearney. He seemed 
much dejected upon it; was confident he was 
near his end; but to divert himself for that 
day he determined to take his gun and go 
fowling with young J. Desborow, young Ox- 

l.ofC. 66 



JOHN KIN8E7. 

ley and two or three more. They walked to 
Coulter's ferry and crossed Schuylkill and up 
to the Falls feny. He told the company sev- 
eral times, as they walked, he wished no acci- 
dent might befall him before he got home. 
On their return, crossing the ferry in the 
boat, the unhappy accident happened to him. 
Thus you have the particulars of this melan- 
choly affair as fully as I could relate it if 
with you. And I chose to be particular in 
it, because I have met with no story in history 
so well attested as this concerning the pre- 
monitions from Heaven of our dissolution. 
The flash that struck his cheek when asleep 
clearly answered by the flash of the gnn, and 
the shot thereof first striking. His aunts 
labored to persuade him not to go a-gunning 
that day, and he agreed; but afterward meet- 
ing his company, they prevailed with him as 
they had all agreed to go the night before." 
(Pa. Magazine, Vol. XIIL, pp. 381-2.) 

DEATH OF JOHN KINSEY. 

This experience was a terrible blow to the 
father. In a little over a year John Kinsey 
67 



JOHN KINSE7. 

was stricken with apoplexy while attending a 
meeting at Burling-ton, New Jersey. He was 
then only fifty-seven years old, and in the full 
vigor of his powers. 

His sudden death removed fromi the Meet- 
ing a valued elder, from the Supreme Court 
its chief magistrate, from the Assembly its 
speaker and leader, from the province of 
Pennsylvania a modest, quiet man, whose 
firmness and decision was only equaled by the 
clear vision of his intellect. After his death 
the influence of the Society of Friends in pub- 
lic affairs rapidly declined. 

John Kinsey led the Assembly when the 
Friends constituted from twenty-five to thirty 
in a house composing thirty-six members. 
After John Kinsey's death the Friends in the 
Assemblj^ were sadly in need of a leader. The 
strongest mind there was Benjamin Frank- 
lin, and his influence divided the Friends. 
Some favored defensive warfare and others 
opposed all war. 

The Assembly could no longer work as a 
imit. The leader was gone. The strong 
hand, which in a measure, probably more 



JOEl^ KIN8ET. 

than any other, showed that Quaker prin- 
ciples could be applied successfully to affairs 
of state, was no longer at the helm. 

In less than seven years after John Kin- 
sey's death the Friends had disappeared so 
rapidly from the Assembly that they com- 
prised scarcely one-third of that body. The 
loss of John Kinsey w^as the death-knell to 
the influence of Friends as a religious society 
upon the Assembly. 



60 



'HII5 89 



• O' ^<>, *-'^-' ^<i^ 






^ '^^'^ 'C^ 









•* .^^ 




















■• o 




'.' *■">, .' 



.•1 °^ - 



p*..-^;^^,'^= 



V '^^'\^^ ^o'^f^->'J> 
















^^ A^ *i 






>'^^, 






.-. -^^ 






« ,0*^ 




: *^o* 
















^^-v^. 

















;»\*^' % 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





014 208 337 1 # 



